Incumbent Storage Providers' Influence

Less than a third are getting help on public or private cloud storage from the incumbent vendor. No: 37%, yes, on both public and private: 29%, yes, but on private only: 8%, yes, but on public only: 5%

App Services in the Cloud Use in Next 2 to 5 Years

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications are usually the first place customers get started in the cloud. Currently use: 64%, plan to use: 30%, no plans: 6%

Cost: A Barrier to Cloud Adoption

On a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 as the highest), about half those surveyed don’t see cost as being much of an issue just yet. 5: 1%, 4: 23%, 3: 26%, 2: 29%, 1: 21%

Performance: A Barrier to Cloud Adoption

As the use of cloud services increases, concerns about performance starts to rise on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 as the highest). 5: 7%, 4: 22%, 3: 38%, 2: 21%, 1: 12%

Just about every IT organizations has adopted cloud computing in some form. More important, though, is to what degree that adoption will continue. While barriers to adoption remain, the percentage of organizations using cloud computing today or planning to do so in the next five years is substantial, according to the findings of a survey of 96 attendees at the recent AWS re:Invent 2013 conference. The challenge facing solution providers in the channel is that this shift represents a significant disruption to the vendor status quo. The survey, conducted by cloud storage gateway provider Avere Systems, makes it clear that most customers are not getting much help from their incumbent storage vendors in making the transition to the cloud. But while interest in all things cloud remains high, the survey also indicates that concerns over security, performance and inertia within the organization mean it will be some time before the cloud dominates all things IT. Channel Insider examines key takeaways from the study.